Is Dana White Afraid of Anderson Silva?

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Anderson Silva is widely considered one of the best fighters of this era, if not all time. He can knock you out, submit you, or spend five rounds making you look foolish.

Unfortunately, according to most people, Dana White included, Silva has been doing the latter more often than not.

With his last three title defenses ending without being finished by Silva himself, many are wondering if he is only fighting to avoid losing instead of winning.

After UFC 112, a fight that saw Silva taunting submission specialist Demian Maia for half of the fight, then simply avoiding Maia the half, White was noticeably angry and promised to the fans that he would repay them.

He is doing so with a stacked card at Silva's next headline event, UFC 117.

But there is one big question here.  Is Dana White doing this as a way to repay the fans for his performance at UFC 112, or is he doing this out of fear for another "lackluster" performance by Silva?

If he is doing this out of fear, then UFC fans may be in for some very exciting cards in the near future.

First, however, let's take a look at this card with a short preview from top to bottom.

Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen, Main Event

Although there has been grumblings about Silva, I think he puts on a show in this one.

Matt Hughes vs. Ricardo Almeida, Co-Main Event

I don't think this fight is Co-Main Event worthy, but the rest of the card makes up for it.

Clay Guida vs. Rafael Dos Anjos, Main Card

Guida always puts on exciting fights, and there is no reason to think this fight will be any different.

Roy Nelson vs. Junior Dos Santos, Main Card

Both of these fighters are great at knocking opponents out, so this fight should end with one of these fighters out cold.

Thiago Silva vs. Tim Boetsch, Preliminary Card

Silva has yet to lose to a fight to an opponent who hasn't been a UFC Champion, Boetsch is returning to the UFC and is on a three-fight win streak.

Dustin Hazelett vs. Rick Story, Preliminary Card

Hazelett is 5-2 in his last seven, only losing to Paul Daley and Josh Koscheck. Story is on a three-fight win streak.

Stefan Struve vs. Christian Morecraft, Preliminary Card

Struve might end up being a title contender if he takes his career more seriously and bulks up.

Johnny Hendricks vs. Charlie Brennerman, Prelimenary Card

Hendricks is a solid prospect at 26 years old and is 8-0 thus far in his pro career.

Ben Saunders vs. Denis Hallman, Preliminary Card

Saunders has only been finished by Mike Swick, and his only other loss came by decision against Jon Fitch.

Meanwhile, he has only been to a decision twice since his first two fights, which were draws.

Rodney Wallace vs. Stanislav Nedkov, Preliminary Card

Wallace is 0-2 in the octagon and is gone if he loses this fight.  Nedkov is making his UFC debut.  These fights generally turn out to be exciting.

Although not top heavy, this card is full of exciting fights from top to bottom, with every fight containing fighters who are going to put on show.

You get a solid mix of greatness (Anderson Silva) with good fighters in their prime (Thiago Silva, Clay Guida, Chael Sonnen, etc.) and up-and-coming prospects (Stefan Struve, Johnny Hendricks).

Barring multiple fighters getting injured/pulling out, this card will likely be talked about with other recent events like UFC 100 and UFC 92 as one of the best in history.

But has White done this out of love for the fans, or fear of them?

White is in a business that completely relies on the show that he puts on and how the public percieves them, and with Silva headlining an event, you never know what you are going to get.

White's fear of Silva's antics may give the fans a couple outstanding cards such as this one in the near future, but they may also be without reason.

Let's take a look at Silva's four most recent fights and see how they went.

Anderson Silva vs. Demian Maia - UFC 112

Silva thoroughly dominated Maia throughout the first half of this fight.  He could have finished him at any point in time through those first 12-13 minutes, but he didn't. 

That led to the second half of the fight being mostly Silva running away from Maia, even getting a warning for doing so. 

Although the second half of the fight wasn't great, the first half gets lost in the hoopla, and that first half was outstanding. 

Joe Rogan was astonished at how good Silva looked, and I think that the reason that Silva began dodging Maia was because he was gassed.

Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin - UFC 101

This was a great fight.  Silva looked outstanding and put Griffin away embarassingly in the first round. Nobody complained.

Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites - UFC 97

Leites spent five rounds on his back with nobody on top of him.  Although it wasn't a good performance by Silva, he really had nothing to work with.

Leites was afraid of Silva standing but couldn't get it to the ground, Silva was wise and didn't toy with Leites' outstanding submission game.

Anderson Silva vs. Patrick Cote - UFC 90

Silva and Cote went back and forth, and it was fairly even.  Although Silva was winning the stand-up, it was still anybody's fight.

However, Cote went down with a knee injury (I'm pretty sure he tore his ACL but I can't find somewhere to confirm that) at the start of the third round. 

Silva didn't look his best in this performance either, but there were three unfought rounds, and that wasn't Silva's fault.

As you can see, although many are quick to judge Silva as becoming a boring fighter, he still has the same outstanding striking and ground games that have made him one of the best in history.

He has gone to a decision just twice in 11 UFC fights, and he has yet to lose in the octagon. 

In fact, you have to go back to December 2006 to find a fight where he lost, and back to another two years to December 2004 to find a fight where somebody actually beat him (his 2006 loss was by DQ from an illegal kick).

Just to drive the point home about how good Silva is, here are a few more of his accomplishments.

• Two time Fight of the Night winner
• Two Knockout of the Night Victories
• One Submission of the Night
• Most consecutive UFC Title defenses with six (6-0 in UFC title fights)
• Most consecutive UFC wins (11-0 in the UFC)
• Also held titles in Cage Rage (their final Middleweight Champion) and Shooto.
• Has never lost a title fight in any organization (11-0 in title fights)
• 2009 Sherdog Beatdown of the Year vs. Forrest Griffin (you know, in the stretch where he isn't the same fighter)

If anybody can look at what he has done and tell me that he isn't one of the greatest of all time, then you are poorly mistaken.

His resume speaks for itself, and he still continues to put on the same impressive performances that he always has.

But if Dana White wants to assume that Silva isn't going to put on a great fight and give us amazing cards such as UFC 117 every time Silva fights, I'm not going to sit there and tell him he's wrong to do so.

After all, who am I to argue with a great event.

I'm Joe W.

Joe Willett also writes for The Chicago Perspective and The Daily Cub .